Summer recipe: Broccoli and blue cheese salad

The broccoli in our garden is ripe and ready, so I thought I would give it a spin, in a summery way. I love keeping my vegetables crunchy and savory, not boil them too much to keep the flavors and vitamins still active. Deep green vegetables are renowned for their anti-cancer properties and boosting your immune system. Broccoli is full of healthy fiber and vitamin C, as long as you steam it or don’t boil it more than 5 minutes.

So let’s get down to business:

What you need:

500g broccoli

1 small carrot

1 small zucchini

About 200g celery

2 cloves of garlic

60 g blue cheese

3-4 walnuts

Optional dressing:

1 cup of light yogurt

1/2 lemon

1 ts French mustard

olive oil

dill, salt

How to make the salad:

Set water to boil in a medium size pot. Meanwhile, wash the broccoli and cut the stem off, leaving only the flowers. When the water starts boiling spread them in together with a tablespoon of salt. Leave no more than 5 minutes, drain them and cool them with some cold water.

Grate the celery and carrot with the fine grater. Dice the cheese into small squares. Roughly chop the walnuts and finely chop the garlic. Peel the zucchini into fine strips. In a wok, or the pan of your choice, heat some olive oil and mix the zucchini and garlic until the zucchini softens, not too long, to keep some of the crunchiness.

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle with olive oil or make a yogurt dressing on the side.

And the dressing:

I love me some dressing but not the heavy kind, just light yogurt spiced with all kinds of wonders.

Mix a cup of yogurt with half a lemon, 2 spoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of French mustard. For me French mustard is the perfect taste between mustard and mayonnaise, not too heavy, not too tingly, and with beautiful mustard seed for color and texture. You can also add some chopped dill. I like to replace salt with lemon in dressings, but sometimes I add a bit of salt if I don’t get the quantities right.